How Is Leo De Vries Doing After Blockbuster Trade From Padres to Athletics?

The San Diego Padres were all the talk at last summer's trade deadline as president of baseball operations A.J. Preller orchestrated one of the most shocking deals in recent years.

Athletics closer Mason Miller was the crown jewel of the relief market and every team wanted him, but that would come at quite the cost. San Diego was willing to pay.

The Padres sent top prospect Leo De Vries along with three other prospects to the Athletics in exchange for Miller and starting pitcher JP Sears.

The trade has evidently worked out for the Padres as Miller is sporting a 0.72 ERA with 49 strikeouts across 25 innings of work this season. The Padres closer will no doubt be an All-Star this summer and some analysts are even inserting Miller into the Cy Young conversation.

Preller may have very well traded for the next Mariano Rivera.

As for De Vries, the 19-year-old was surprised by the Padres' decision to let him go.

"I really don't know what to say but thanks for everything," wrote De Vries in an Instagram post following the deadline deal.

Nearly a year later, De Vries is blossoming into a star shortstop in the minors.

At Double-A this season, De Vries is hitting .279 with five home runs, 19 RBIs and an OPS of .757 within the Athletics' farm system.

There is a small chance he would could make his MLB debut this season as Athletics manager Mark Kotsay didn't close the door on calling up De Vries at some point throughout the year.

"I mean I didn't think there was a chance that Nick Kurtz would be in the big leagues after 17 days of a season. I'm not going to say no, for sure," Kotsay said in the spring. "I think everything is on the table. I've been really impressed with his actions in spring training. This is the first real look I've had at Leo."

The deadline deal has more than worked out for the Padres, but it's still too early to tell whether the Athletics have benefitted from the trade. De Vries could certainly be a superstar in the big leagues, but it doesn't seem like that will be any time soon as he isn't even 20 years old yet.

While the Padres didn't blink an eye trading De Vries, Preller acknowledged it was tough sending the top prospect away.

“It’s the most difficult part of the job,” Preller said of the trade at the time. “We have history with Leo since he was 13, 14 years old in terms of when we started following and scouting him. He’s going to be a very good major league player. We’ve talked about this in the past. There are going to be guys that we sign and scout and develop and we want them to do it at Petco at a championship level."

"He’s asked about in every deal," Preller added. "He’s a very good player and a tremendous prospect and we weren’t going to do it unless we got the right fit and pieces."

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